Sketch Of The Life Of Alexander Wilson, Author Of The American Ornithology

Paperback | May 20, 2014

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1828 edition. Excerpt: ... In a poem consisting of more than two thousand lines, it would be strange if some touches of excellence could not be found, some passages which prove that the author not only possessed poetical ideas, but also was familiar with the art of poetical expression. In his description of the calm, smoky, autumnal weather, which, in America, is usually denominated the Indian Summer, we are presented with a beautiful image, which I do not recollect to have seen elsewhere: " Slow sailed the thistle-down along the lawn." The description of the Dutch farmer, and his habitation, would not disgrace the author of Rip Van Winkle. In the enumeration of the miseries of a country schoolmaster there is much truth; and the picture is vividly and feelingly drawn from nature. Few had more experience than Wilson of the degraded condition of a teacher, when under the control of the vulgar and ignorant; a state compared with which the lot of the hewer of wood, and drawer of water, is truly enviable. The account of daddy Squares, the settler, and that of Pat Dougherty, the shopkeeper and publican, contain some humor. The latter is a disgusting exhibition of one of those barbarians, whom the traveller often meets with in the interior of our country; and whose ignorance, bestiality and vice, have the tendency to disabuse one on the subject of the virtue and happiness usually attributed to the inhabitants remote from our large cities, which, instead of being the only nurseries of corruption, as is believed and affirmed, are the great schools wherein science, literature, piety and manners, arc most effectively taught, and most beneficially practised. The sketch of the Indian hunter is entitled to praise, as being vigorous and picturesque; and the description...

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1828 edition. Excerpt: ... In a poem consisting of more than two thousand lines, it would be strange if some touches of excellence could...